Household appliances generally include a housing with which is associated at least one functional region. For example, a household appliance in the form of a cooking appliance may have associated therewith, for example, a cooking chamber and/or a cooking zone for preparing food.
Also disposed in the housing are the electronic components necessary for operating the household appliance, such as, for example, components for supplying energy and/or for operating and/or controlling the household appliance.
Typically, heat is generated inside the household appliance during operation thereof Therefore, to ensure reliable operation, it may be advantageous to avoid excessive heating of the interior of the appliance and/or to cool the interior of the appliance. Cooling and/or dissipation of heat is advantageous, in particular, for the electronic components and/or for the region in which the electronic components are located.
Such cooling may be active or passive. Among other things, it may be sufficient merely to provide an outer sheet metal housing panel with openings preventing heat accumulation inside the appliance. In addition, one or more fans may be advantageously used to allow the heat that is generated during operation to be removed from the housing of the household appliance. Other active cooling methods may also be advantageously used, depending on the household appliance.
Such openings for ventilating the interior of the appliance are frequently configured as so-called “ventilation gills”. For this purpose, for example, a cut is initially made in an outer sheet metal housing panel at a predetermined location. Then, the housing panel is slightly deformed at this location in order to provide a sufficiently large opening for ventilation of the interior of the appliance.
Such openings in the outer panels of a household appliance have the disadvantage that a user may, in certain circumstances, be able to look inside the appliance or housing. This is not particularly advantageous in terms of visual appearance on the one hand, and on the other hand, some countries have regulations that do not permit an unobstructed view of the interior of the housing.
Therefore, in order to prevent viewing of the interior of the appliance, it is common to provide additional view-obstructing panels which are mounted inside the appliance behind the openings in the exterior appliance wall.
Such additional view-obstructing panels have the disadvantage that the additional panel may restrict the free exchange of air. Moreover, the additional view-obstructing panel implies increased expenditure for material, production and assembly, which means increased manufacturing costs.